Hikari
by RebelzHeart
Summary: Luffy was their light. Part of their dream. He had given them their home. One-shots for when each of the Straw Hats joined the crew. Extras: Ace and Sabo.
1. Zoro

Zoro lived in a world of black and white. Wrong and right. Darkness and light. But he had always believed there would be more right than wrong, more white than black, more light than darkness.

He was lost. Incredibly, stupidly lost. But, although he'd never admit it out loud, he was too stubborn to admit that either. Too stubborn, and too proud.

He'd been wandering for years, searching for Mihawk. Because he'd made a promise to Kuina, and he meant to fulfill it. Of course, he would have become the strongest anyways, the promise was just an incentive. Or at least, that was what he kept telling himself.

Because, although he kept refusing to so much as think it, maybe he did kind of feel guilty for her death.

And maybe… just maybe, mind you… he wanted to atone somehow. To convince himself that he wasn't at fault. Or something cheesy and stupid like that. But he didn't think that, because he was a man, and he hadn't killed her, and his chest didn't hurt whenever he thought of her and… well… maybe a little.

But that was alright. Because becoming stronger was all that mattered… so what if he was keeping a promise? Loyalty wasn't a weakness. At least, not to someone like Kuina.

Zoro refused to give up, even when people beat him down and kicked him as soon as he got up. Giving up meant becoming something he despised, meant breaking his promise. If he gave up, then why would he want to live? What reason did he have to keep going, except to become the strongest swordsman in the world?

He couldn't die. If he did, at least he had fought for his dream. At least he had kept his honor and dignity.

Hanging on this slab of wood, tied up by that incompetent onion head, it didn't matter. The sun scorched him, and the rain froze all but his bones, but it didn't matter. He hadn't given up, he was going to reach his dream.

And, as stupid as he was, he had trusted that the marines wouldn't lie to him.

But they had, and knowing that he was going to die, he gave up. Let go of his dignity and his honor, and set free everything that had made him keep on living.

He had killed Kuina, but at least he'd die for her.

Hanging on that slab of wood, the white parts of his world began to fade away, and the darkness had begun to swallow the light.

He hadn't lived for Kuina. He'd lived for himself. He was selfish. He was stupid.

He was about to die.

Then his light had come in, and saved him. Luffy had brushed away any signs of darkness, and not only did he give Zoro's world light, he gave it color. Somewhere along the journey, Zoro stopped caring about his promise to Kuina.

But that was alright. He could keep on living, for the sake of the light that had filled his life with color. And, hey, that wasn't such a bad deal. And besides, he could become the strongest swordsman along the way.

Who knew? After all, their journey had just begun.


	2. Nami

Nami was blind.

She had lived her entire life believing something that everyone else had long since realized was nothing but a lie, naively trusting that there was a silver lining to every cloud, no matter how black.

She'd believed that even the cruelest of people would keep their promises.

When she had realized that what she had always thought wasn't truly the case, it felt like a punch to the gut. She had still been doubled over in pain when it struck her that maybe there was no such thing as silver linings.

And Nami wondered if maybe, instead of silver linings, there were black linings, and even the brightest of clouds had a dark side.

Bellemere had told her that there was always a good side to things. That everyone, no matter how evil, just needed to be loved. Nami had believed her.

But then Bellemere had died.

Stupidly sticking to her morals, even when it could have meant death, even when she knew that it meant that she wouldn't be able to see those silver linings that she had oh-so-naively believed in anymore.

Bellemere had abandoned Nami because she loved Nami.

How ironic.

Sometimes Nami wondered if Bellemere would have lived had she decided to abandon Nami, or had she chosen to never adopt her. If Bellemere had looked the other way, she would have been alive… but she had been too kind for that, too self sacrificing and loving.

It hurt a million times more than any physical wound ever could.

Nami felt like a lost child in the dark, groping for a door that wasn't there.

The offer of money was a false door. It paved a way to what she had thought was her future… but that was because her blinders had blocked out the sight of the thorns on the sides and the nails on the ground that made it impossible for her to reach her fantasy of a goal.

Her tangerine orchard was like a door to the past, when everything was good and peaceful and she could give her true smiles. But then she came plummeting back down to earth, and the pain increased tenfold.

Then Luffy had come.

As she went back to Arlong, her blinders falling off, she had assumed that the world around her was nothing but the darkness he pointed out to her.

But Luffy had shown her those were a form of blinders too. That the real world maybe was a little scary, and held heartache… but it also had wonder, and a form of brilliance money couldn't buy and no words could describe.

And suddenly, Nami could see. And the world was even more beautiful than Bellemere had told her.


	3. Usopp

Usopp was used to being lied to.

He was used to being invisible… unseen, unheard, and ignored.

When his father had left, he could scarcely remember it. Vague phrases that people offered to his mother with false sympathy went right over his head, and they only spoke to him when his mother pointed him out. But they way they spoke was like recorded voices a robot had been programmed to say, and they looked more through him than at him, like he was a ghost or too stupid to understand.

Whenever Usopp cried or told others what he thought, they looked at him with disgust, as though wondering, _What is this stupid boy thinking? Children should be seen and not heard._

When his father had sent letters (though that was only at the beginning, after a month or so they stopped coming and his father seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth), they had said half hearted but sweet sounding words like "I love you" and "Miss you guys so much".

He loved them? Then why did he abandon them for the sea? He missed them? Then why didn't he visit?

It hurt a lot whenever Usopp thought of those lies. _I'll never hurt someone like that._ He vowed. _I'll tell the truth, and if it's a lie then I'll_ make _it the truth!_

But then he could feel himself disappearing, fading into the background as the quiet kid who's father abandoned him. So he started yelling things to make people look at him, and it was like a breath of oxygen after drowning.

At first, he had told grand stories of his adventures at sea, hoping that his father was living them. And then, he thought, maybe his father would somehow hear of these grand tales, and come back to Usopp. Maybe he'd think that Usopp's stories sent him into a greater adventure than the sea could offer.

He screamed a million things that weren't true, then he screamed some more. His voice went hoarse at times, and eventually he felt like he was breaking. He felt like he couldn't tell when he was telling the truth or just lying to himself, and he had long forgotten why he had begun to lie in the first place.

When he shouted that pirates were coming, he wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was because he wanted his father to come, and had thought at the time that if he had said pirates would come his father's crew would magically appear and his father would come home.

Maybe he thought that if he scared the others, he'd get protected from the pirates, the ones who took his father away. Neither ever happened though, so he kept shouting until it just became a meaningless routine.

He kept lying, wishing someone would see through him and tell him to stop. That they didn't want his lies, but they cared about the truth, and they wanted to know how he felt and what he had _really_ done today.

Luffy had come, with eyes that made Usopp want to impress and captivate him. With a truthful, innocent voice, and a smile that didn't hide anything.

So Usopp decided to be honest with the honest boy, and to tell the truth. That he wouldn't hide himself, or try to fool people.

Well… most of the time, at least. Because the Great Captain Usopp was a pretty good storyteller.


	4. Sanji

**A/N:** This chapter was… awful. Completely awful. No excuses, I just suck at writing Sanji. Sorry…

Sanji was used to being abandoned.

When his father had died, he had screamed his lungs out and cried until his tears were all dried up. The offered words of comfort had no meaning to a three year old who would soon forget he had ever had a father, and for a long time he had sat with the thought, _Why couldn't he have brought me with him?_

When his mother had finally broken down and confessed that she couldn't keep him anymore because of the costs it took to raise him, it felt like his world was made out of glass, and had shattered. As he was offered a job as a cabin boy on a ship, he had wondered, _Was it my fault? If I had been different, would she have kept me?_

When the ship he worked for deemed him unfit and had passed him on to one of it's smaller ship companies, he felt so hollow that his only reaction was quiet acceptance. He didn't make a sound, despite the fact that for some reason his chest hurt at the thought that he wasn't good enough. _Is there something wrong with me?_

So when Zeff had saved his life, it was something that felt new… different… but a good kind of different. Sanji was awestruck. He didn't just want to repay Zeff for saving his life… but for accepting him despite all his flaws.

Sanji poured his all into helping the old man. His time, his thoughts, everything. He panicked whenever he thought of himself, and quickly shoved that selfishness away, because even though he knew it was irrational, he felt scared that if he was useless for even a second he's be thrown away again, like those scraps of food nobody ever ate. Food was important, and Sanji was too. Or at least, he'd try his best to be.

Zeff handled him gruffly, but after a while Sanji had realized that the reason Zeff acted like that wasn't because he disliked Sanji, but merely because the old man wasn't the mushy type.

Sanji had realized a long time ago that getting too attached to people wasn't good, and that if you opened up to them it was easier to get attached, so he, too, acted cold.

When he noticed the way that his ability to act kind and thoughtful… to act _human_ … was slipping away, he could feel panic. His mask was beginning to shatter, and he could barely salvage the pieces, scared that everyone would see how scared of everything he was, scared that he'd be deemed weak and useless all over again.

So he replaced his cold mask with one of a shallow idiot, and eventually, he became what he pretended to be, and didn't need to pretend anymore. His fear was washed away by the fickle way that he approached every woman, abandoning them in a way that didn't hurt them.

Women, he told himself, were kind and gentle. They smiled at him in a way that vaguely stirred up memories of his mother, and despite the fact the he knew it was stupid, he drank up their attention.

It was hard to keep people's eyes on him, though, and his stupid fears kept popping up like balloons.

Then Luffy had seen him.

And Luffy, even when he wasn't looking, always seemed to be assuring Sanji that he was important, that he was needed. Sanji kept convincing himself he was being stupid, and desperate.

He had to pay back the old man, for taking him in despite the fact that Sanji felt worthless.

But Luffy had persisted. _You're important to me._ The straw hatted boy insisted. _I need you_.

So Sanji had taken a chance.

And he knew that Luffy would never abandon him.


	5. Chopper

**A/N:** This one's shorter and later than the others, so sorry! The place where I was writing this crashed, so I had to rewrite it... sorry.

Chopper was a monster.

And more than that, he felt like a useless monster.

Chopper was a doctor, but he couldn't heal everything.

He couldn't heal diseases.

He couldn't heal heartache.

He had killed his first patient.

Chopper was absolutely useless. He had been unique from the start, born with a blue nose. Not a brown one like respectable reindeer, nor a red one like the reindeer that resided on that Christmas island in New World, but a blue nose, one that belonged to a mutant and a freak.

When he ate the Hito Hito no Mi, it just made him even more of a freak than he already was. He could speak like humans, and move like humans, but he still had his blue nose and his fur, too human to be a reindeer but too much of an animal to be truly human. So he was a monster, instead, one that was to be hunted and killed and ostracized.

He couldn't understand anything though, he was too stupid to realize a skull meant death, not life, to realize that it wasn't something that could cure everything, but something that could _kill_ anything, and he couldn't realize that he didn't belong anywhere.

Chopper was stupid. So, so stupid.

On cold nights, he could feel the cold enough for it to be uncomfortable, but his fur was warm enough that he wouldn't die. That was something that only happened to freaks, the ones in the middle of two things that should have been opposites but weren't.

Who wanted to be around someone like him?

No one.

No one, except Luffy.

Luffy, who in his own right, was a monster, but not one like Chopper. Or at least, that was what Chopper had thought. But Luffy had taught him that there was no difference between them.

That when Luffy thought, he couldn't do it, but he had nakama to do it for him, and Chopper did too.

That when he didn't know something, he had nakama to help him understand it.

That when he was cold, his nakama would help warm him up.

So, sure, Chopper was a monster. He was a freak. He couldn't do anything right.

But maybe… he could do some things right.

For example, he could be Luffy's nakama, and fulfill that role perfectly.


	6. Robin

Robin knew that getting attached to people was what weaklings did.

She understood, after Ohara, that when you got close to people they either left it shattered or stomped it to bits. She understood that if you got too closed to someone, all that would happen was when you started to lean on them, they'd let you fall.

When her home had burned, she had at first trusted people, only running away when she finally caught them whispering about her and how much money they'd get if they turned her in. She had learned quickly, learning that you couldn't trust anyone, that nobody really cared about her.

The only people who ever cared about Robin died.

She was only a bad luck charm anyways, bringing death and destruction in her wake. So Robin had built up walls and closed up her heart, pushed others out and tried to ensure that when her bad luck followed her it was her own fault.

She wouldn't make the people suffer because she brought the government on her heels, they'd suffer because it was what her 'ally' at the time wanted, what she'd willingly done.

At first it felt sickening, and she felt like those men who had killed the citizens of Ohara merely to ensure not one scholar escaped.

She felt heartless and cold.

But Robin didn't need a heart. All she needed to do was survive… survive long enough to find the true history. Maybe she didn't need to reveal it to everyone, tell anyone about the government's corruptions, she just—she just needed to know. She wanted to let the Professor rest in peace.

She let herself become numb. It was like her consciousness was deep underwater, asleep, and her emotions only emerged from their state of unmoving stillness when she saw another poneglyph. Fear rarely chased her anymore, she had become too accustomed to it for that.

Robin didn't expect to ever smile again. But she didn't need to. Smiles were for people who deserved them, after all.

But then she had met Luffy.

Luffy, with his emotions running crazy, and his smile that couldn't help but force her emotions to come to the surface.

She tried to be cold. Robin had expected to use him, and then throw him away. He was an idiot, but a strong one, and he trusted her. It was a win-win situation for her.

But then he had forced her emotions out, and broke the chains that felt like they'd been forcing her smiles down, and then she felt free.

Robin had thought that only weaklings got attached.

But then she had met Luffy.


	7. Franky

**A/N:** Loathe as I am to admit it, Franky's past is a bit of a blur to me, considering that all the parts of Water 7 (other than Robin's past) were only read once by me. I didn't watch it, didn't reread it—as a result, I have some issues with Franky. So, this chapter was awful, I apologize, but I do hope you'll enjoy anyways!

Franky wasn't good with people. Well, animals. Well… any living organism, really.

Tom was different. And maybe Bakaburg too… but just a little, mind you, and only when he was desperate for stupidity. But mostly Tom.

Tom was different, but a good kind of different. He looked different, so Franky supposed it shouldn't have been a surprise that Tom didn't judge Franky when he first met him.

Franky was… a little strange.

Alright, he was more than a little strange. Unlike normal people, who seemed to live off of secrets and betrayal, he liked to keep it simple. The truth, in Franky's opinion, was a perfectly wonderful thing. Others seemed to like to hide, while Franky liked being open (this was possibly one of the reasons why he wore so little).

Tom said what he had thought was true. Tom had promised Franky that he would never lie to him, and Franky believed him. Tom had only lied once…

Just once, right before he died.

 _It'll all be all right._ Tom had promised. _Don't worry!_

But Tom had died. He had been taken away by the government by his own ship—he had been betrayed by his own creation. Except it wasn't truly betrayal, because his ship couldn't control what happened on it's deck.

 _It will_ never _be okay._ Franky had thought. His world had shattered like glass. He hated ships. He hated humans.

He hated himself.

Perhaps one reason why he wasn't good with people was that he couldn't quite understand them. They asked things like, 'what do you think of me? Be honest.' But when you replied honestly they got mad at you. Shouldn't they have been happy that you were honest?

It felt strange to Franky. That was why he liked ships. Ships had a certain knack, they didn't hide things and didn't manipulate you. Ships were simple, but they could do so many things that humans couldn't even dream of doing. Ships made sense.

Humans didn't.

Then he had met Luffy. Luffy made a lot of sense. He was simple, but in a good way. Kind, loyal, honest, and brave. He could do so much more than a ship could.

And Franky thought, maybe Tom was right.

Maybe it _would_ be all right.

Because maybe Franky was no good with people, but the Straw Hats were very good with him.


	8. Brook

**A/N:** I am finally finished! **Question: Do you want Ace and Sabo in this story as well?** Or anyone else? (eg. Makino, Shanks, etc.) If so, review, talk to me, request. Until someone makes a request (even if it's 10 years later, I might write it, haha.), this story is complete.

Brook was used to being alone.

Fifty years all by yourself, with only the sound of music and the stench of death tended to do that to you. It didn't mean he liked it, but he was used to it.

Brook used to dream. A long, long time ago, he dreamed of conquering the Grand Line with his captain. But his captain had become ill… the crew had died… and only Brook had survived.

Some would have said that Brook's surviving was a blessing, that it was another chance to live and fulfill his dreams.

But he knew better. Brook understood that it was a curse. At first, he had dreamed of bringing the shell to Laboon, and of reuniting with his friend. He dreamed of having a crew again, of having a second family. Then reality had come crashing down, and Brook had only started picking up the pieces when he looked around and realized that there were too many pieces for one man to pick up all on his own.

He couldn't even cry, because his tears had been all dried up.

It hurt a lot.

Seeing his thin, pale arms, Brook understood that even if he was alive and should be grateful, he was still a freak. He understood that even if he was a skeleton and couldn't be injured, he could still feel pain. He understood that even if he could sing, as long as there was no one to hear it, it felt useless.

When the captain had left, music had helped Brook remember. Being part of the band reminded him that he still had something left.

When the crew was dying, he could hear the music they played even as they fought. Odd as it was, even the lonely duet had someone else with him, so he was grateful.

When he was struck dead, the lively music aboard their ship should have become silence.

But instead it became a solo.

A soft, quiet sound that seemed useless and pained. Music, Brook realized, wasn't pretty if there was no harmony, and his harmony had left a long time ago.

50 years was an awfully long time.

Alone, it was almost unbearable.

His only consolation had been the sound of music that he understood he could no longer make, playing over and over until the hurt that he felt every time he listened had started hurting so much that he stopped listening.

Why listen to music when you couldn't make any? Why remind yourself of how painful it was?

Brook had thought that he was used to being alone, that he didn't need companionship.

But then he had met Luffy.

And he realized that without Luffy, he felt oddly hollow, despite the fact that he was already nothing but bones.


	9. Ace

Ace had always hated his family.

As far as he knew, his only family was Roger... and the shitty gramps, he supposed, but he didn't really seem to count. Roger was a demon, and... well, Garp was too.

He didn't need a family, though, he figured. Family was stupid... it was nothing. All family did for him was give him yet another reason to die and leave this freaked out mess of a world.

Ace knew what would happen if he was found out by the marines. He'd get killed.

Sometimes he hated fate for that. Hated that it seemed the only choice in his life was to die after living a useless life, where he had never done anything, never proved that there _was_ a reason for Ace to be alive, his family be damned.

He had never found it, though, and had long since given up on searching for something he figured had never existed.

His father was a demon, his mother was an angel, and his grandpa was a violent idiot.

Ace must have taken after his father, since he was obviously a demon as well.

He was obviously a freak and didn't deserve to live...

Sabo had been a good friend. He'd stuck with Ace even after discovering his secret, but he merely made life bearable. Ace didn't look forwards to the next day, nor did he ever think that he was worth something.

But then he had met Luffy.

And Luffy had told him that he _mattered_ , and that Luffy wanted him to live, and they became brothers, and then...

Maybe family wasn't so bad.

After all, Luffy was family, right?

And Luffy was the best thing out there.


	10. Sabo

Sabo didn't belong anywhere.

Sure, he was a noble.

But unlike what the name implied, he wasn't very noble at all.

Sabo was selfish, immature, and never liked to listen to reason.

He didn't fit in wherever he went. He didn't fit in at his mother's extravagant parties, his father's political meetings (where the nobles didn't _really_ do anything other than brag about their money), and he didn't even fit in at his own home.

The only place where he really fit in was the Gray Terminal… the only place where Sabo belonged was among the useless trash that nobody cared about.

When he had met Ace, he had felt stunned. This was the type of person he wanted to be, who cared about nothing that others thought, who's emotions were even more open than one of those dull books his tutors made him read.

But Ace seemed to always be angry. Sometimes, he'd slow down for Sabo, or give him one of those rare smiles, but those times, while rare trinkets, were the times that Sabo thought that maybe he did have somewhere to fit in.

But those times were merely that. Rare trinkets. And while Sabo followed Ace around and caught onto the tail of Ace's dream, and made it his own, he was merely doing what felt natural. Following. He wasn't individual, though he knew that Ace tried to coax him out of his shell.

For Ace's sake, Sabo grew more and more boisterous, and for a while, he felt like a real person, not just a follower. But somewhere, deep down inside, he knew that he didn't belong with Ace. He was a noble… a monster. But he was also trash. And Ace… Ace was none of these.

Ace was the son of a King.

He had told Sabo one day, in a soft, pained voice, and Sabo had said he didn't care. But he felt something twist in his gut… something that said just like everyone else, Ace was fading away from him. Ace was much more than Sabo could ever hope to be… and the thought hurt.

Then Luffy had come along.

Crazy, funny little Luffy who had made Ace's anger the rarity and his laughs a common sight.

Luffy had changed Ace… but he also had changed Sabo.

Suddenly, there were things for Sabo to do, things for him to say. He was different than Ace. Kinder, he was told. More polite, they said. But still unmistakably one of the ASL brothers… Sabo.

And there, he felt somewhere to belong.

 **A/N:** I thought that this chapter was really meh. You probably can't really empathize with Sabo here, either... sorry, guys. I'm still half asleep...


	11. Vivi

**A/N:** I bet that you thought this was done. I thought so, too, but _Vivi_. I might do one for Traffy, too, and maybe Jinbe or something. I don't really know, we'll see. I hope you enjoy this, though.

* * *

Vivi followed her duty.

She was born into a life of duty, and raised to put the needs of the country first. Come fire or high water, she was the princess and it was her duty to protect the citizens.

Sure, she loved the country. But she didn't know why.

She was born to love the country, and loving out of duty was never truly love.

So she went through life doing what was "right", what she was supposed to do, and when it came time to put herself at risk, she thought, _I am a princess, this is merely my duty_.

It was her duty, and in so, she was like Atlas, carrying the world on her shoulders and thinking her own strength to be enough.

Infiltrating the Baroque Works, she reminded herself was to protect Alabasta, nothing more.

It wasn't something that she could be happy doing, she reminded herself as she found another rare flower.

 _It's not,_ she thought, _Alabasta._

And so she forbid herself from loving this outside world, this beautiful, strange world that she had not seen before.

And then she met Luffy.

He was a hurricane, with a bright smile and wide eyes yet as she said, _I can only sacrifice myself,_ he pressed a hand against his chest and screamed, _sacrifice us, too!_

And he showed her what truly loving something was.

She fell in love with the world, she fell in love with Alabasta, and suddenly it wasn't a duty anymore, it was a pleasure, something that was granted as a gift to her.

He showed her that this dark world that she had thought she had to struggle to clear the shadows from was actually bright and beautiful, pointing out that the only reasons that there were shadows were because of the bright, beautiful light clothing the world.

She realized that to be a princess, to be in charge of this country, it wasn't a burden passed down through lineage, but rather a privilege to be able to help much more people than someone who didn't have a position as powerful as hers.

It was strange.

But it was _right._

Vivi followed her duty.

But it wasn't truly a duty... this ability to protect was one of her greatest treasures.


End file.
